Page 60 of Captivated
How did he know, even before he began, that he wouldn’t be able to shake her out?
Because it wasn’t infatuation, he admitted slowly. It wasn’t even close to infatuation. It was the big four-letter word. He wasn’t in lust. He’d taken the big leap. He was in love.
She’d made him fall in love with her.
That thought had him sitting straight up. She’d made him. She was a witch. Why hadn’t it ever occurred to him that she could cast her spells, snap her fingers, and have him groveling at her feet?
Part of him rejected the notion as absurd. But another part, the part that had grown out of fear and self-doubt,plucked at the idea. The longer he considered it, the darker his thoughts became.
In the morning, he told himself, he was going to face off with a witch. When he was done, he’d clear the decks, and Nash Kirkland would be exactly where he wanted to be.
In control.
Chapter 11
It felt odd not going in to open the shop Monday morning. It also felt necessary, not just for her weary body, but also for her mind. A call to Mindy eased Morgana’s conscience. Mindy would pick up the slack and open the shop at noon.
It didn’t bother her too much to take a day off. But she would have preferred to steal a day when she felt better. Now she walked downstairs wrapped in her robe, feeling light-headed and queasy, with the restless night weighing heavily on her.
The die had been cast. Matters had been taken out of her hands. With a weary sigh, Morgana wandered into the kitchen to brew some tea. It had never really been in her hands. The awkward thing about power, she mused, was that you could never let yourself become so used to wielding it that you forgot there were bigger, more vital powers than your own.
Pressing a gentle hand to her stomach, she walked to the window while the kettle heated. She wondered if she sensed a storm in the air, or if it was merely her own unsettled thoughts. Luna curled in and out of her legs for a moment, then sensed her mistress’s mood and padded off.
She hadn’t chosen to be in love. She certainly hadn’t chosen to have this avalanche of emotion barrel down on her and sweep her away. To have her life changed. It was nothing less than that now.
There was always a choice, of course. And she had made hers.
It wouldn’t be easy. The most important things rarely were.
Heavy-limbed, she turned to the stove to make the tea. It had barely had time to cool in her cup before she heard the front door open.
“Morgana!”
Resigned, Morgana poured two more cups just as her cousins came into the kitchen. “There.” Anastasia shot Sebastian a look as she hurried to Morgana. “I told you she wasn’t feeling well.”
Morgana kissed her cheek. “I’m fine.”
“I said you were fine,” Sebastian put in, digging a cookie out of the jar on the counter. “Just grumpy. You were sending out signals loud enough and cranky enough to drag me out of bed.”
“Sorry.” She offered him a cup. “I guess I didn’t want to be alone.”
“You’re not well,” Ana insisted. Before she could probe deeper, Morgana stepped away.
“I had a restless night, and I’m paying for it this morning.”
Sebastian sipped his tea. He’d already taken in the pale cheeks and shadowed eyes. And he was getting a flicker of something else, something Morgana was working hard to block. Patient, and always willing to match his will against hers, he settled back.
“Trouble in paradise,” he said, just dryly enough to make her eyes flash.
“I can handle my own problems, thanks.”
“Don’t tease her, Sebastian.” Anastasia set a warning hand on his shoulder. “Have you argued with Nash, Morgana?”
“No.” She sat. She was too tired not to. “No,” she said again. “But it is Nash who worries me. I learned a few things about him yesterday. About his family.”
Because she trusted them as much as she loved them, Morgana told them everything, from the call fromLeeanne to the moment beneath the cypress. What had happened after that, because it belonged only to her and to Nash, she kept to herself.
“Poor little boy,” Anastasia murmured. “How awful to feel unwanted and unloved.”
